Republican congressional candidate Greg Gianforte is defending competing statements about his party’s Obamacare repeal package that he has given in media interviews and conversations with donors who are backing his special election campaign in Montana.
Gianforte declined Friday in an interview with the Washington Examiner to endorse President Trump’s Obamacare repeal and replace legislation, which cleared the House on Thursday with just two votes to spare. But that same day, Gianforte said on a conference call with donors that he was pleased that the American Health Care Act was approved by the House.
The Gianforte campaign confirmed his comments on the conference call, which were secretly recorded and leaked to media outlets. But a spokesman for the House candidate said that he was being consistent.
Gianforte supports replacing former President Barack Obama’s healthcare law and hopes the effort to repeal it produces legislation he can support. At the same time, he could not decide whether to back the AHCA in its current form without a score from the Congressional Budget Office, which House Republicans did not request prior to voting.
“Greg’s thankful we are in the process of repealing Obamacare, because he believes we must repeal and replace Obamacare before it collapses. But he couldn’t have voted for a bill without knowing what is in it and how it effects Montanans,” Gianforte campaign manager Brock Lowrance said in a statement emailed to the Examiner.
“Greg would have wanted all the facts because it’s important to know exactly what’s in the bill before he votes on it,” Lowrance added. “Without a CBO score and the last minute changes, it’s impossible to know the implications. He could not have supported the proposal because key information was unavailable to provide him with a guarantee that all Montanans with pre-existing conditions were covered and that the bill would actually lower premiums and preserve rural access.”
Gianforte is running for the statewide, at-large House seat vacated by Republican Ryan Zinke, who resigned to become Trump’s Interior secretary. His opponent in the May 25 special election is Rob Quist, a progressive from the wing of the Democratic Party dominated by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
Gianforte spoke with the Examiner on Friday prior to the leaking of Thursday’s donor conference call.
In that interview, he said that opposed the original version of the AHCA because it would not have sufficiently reduced premiums, maintained insurance protections for Americans with pre-existing medical conditions, or preserved access to care in rural areas. Gianforte said that he wouldn’t have voted for the updated version, had he had an opportunity to do so, without seeing a new CBO score.
That decision makes sense, politically, as Montanans have benefited from Obamacare.
“Personally, I would have liked to have seen CBO results prior to voting,” he said, adding: “We need to repeal and replace Obamacare.”
Quist supports the Affordable Care Act. “I oppose this bill because it would hurt the people of Montana and hardworking families across the state. No real Montanan would vote for it,” Quist said in a statement issued by his campaign.
The Republican Party is sending reinforcements to Montana to bolster Gianforte’s campaign even as they expressed confidence that he would hold off Quist, a folk singer and small businessman.
Vice President Mike Pence is set to travel there next week, with President Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., scheduled to make his second swing through the state. That’s in addition to regular assistance Gianforte is receiving from close friend and former business colleague, Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont.
Republican insiders are noticeably more confident about this race, to fill a vacant, at-large House seat than they are about the special election in Georgia’s suburban Atlanta 6th Congressional District — or than they were down the stretch of the Kansas 4th Congressional District special election.
“This is very different than Kansas and Georgia for us. We haven’t seen the same data shifts that we did in those two states,” a Republican insider said, on condition of anonymity in order to speak candidly.
Gianforte, 56, ran for governor in 2016 but came short to incumbent Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock. He moved to Bozeman 24 years ago, founding a technology firm that he later sold. In the Examiner interview, he talked about his business credentials and aligned himself with Trump.
The campaign, Gianforte said in a telephone interview, “is about whether or not Montana is going to have a strong voice back in Washington to work with President Trump,” adding: “My opponent is Nancy Pelosi in a cowboy hat.” Gianforte was referring to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
